Arts in Action News

On October 8, we will welcome organist Gail Archer for a concert at Divinity at 3:00pm. Admission is free, and a reception will follow.

Ms . Archer is an international concert organist, recording artist, coral conductor and lecturer who draws attention to composer anniversaries or musical themes with her annual recital series including Max Reger, The Muse’s Voice, and American Idyll, Liszt, Bach, Mendelssohn and Messiaen. Ms. Archer was the first American woman organist to play the complete works of Olivier Messiaen for the centennial of the composer’s birth in 2008. Ms. Archer’s, 2017 European tour took her to Germany, Italy, the British Isles, Russia, Ukraine and Poland. She is the founder of Musforum an international network of women organists too promote and affirm their work. Ms. Archer is college organist at Vassar College, and director of the music program at Barnard College, Columbia University where she conducts the Barnard-Columbia Chorus. She serves as director of the artist and young organ artist recitals at historic Central Synagogue, New York City.

On October 29 we will host a concert featuring organist Sándor Kádár and the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory Treble Choir. This concert will begin at 7:00 PM, and admission will be free. The concert is being sponsored by TS Good Church Organs and the Baldwin-Wallace University conservatory.

Mr. Kádár was born to Hungarian parents in Serbia. He has been involved in church music since his early years and accepted his first organist position at the age of 15. He holds three Bachelor degrees in organ performance, sacred music and conducting as well a Master’s degree in sacred music from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz (Austria). Gunther Rost, Johannes Prinz, Joe Miller and James Jordan are professors who have had a strong influence on Mr. Kádár’s musical career. Prior to his current position he served as organist at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Newtown, PA. In 2012 Mr. Kádár attended the prestigious Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. During his time there, he was a member of the renowned Westminster Choir and Westminster Symphonic Choir. Furthermore he was the organist at First Presbyterian Church in New Brunswick, NJ.

On February 21, we will be welcoming back Dan Miller for an organ concert at Divinity. This concert is free and open to the public.

In considering the scope of Dan Miller’s gifted career, one finds it embraces the entire gamut of musical artistry. He is internationally renowned as a pianist, organist, harpsichordist and keyboardist, and has a fascination with computer music technology. He has taught music, conducted choral groups and orchestras, led and facilitated worship in many different settings, and managed large concert productions and music conferences. He is also respected as an innovative leader in handbells. A professional member of ASCAP (American Society of Composers and Publishers), Mr. Miller is well-known for his composing and arranging, and has several published works with Morningstar Music, Hinshaw Music, FitzSimons, Belcanto Press and DanMillerMusic.com. He has been seen and heard live in concert and through recordings on radio, television, and the internet. He has been the featured solo organist with several symphony orchestras. He is a former Dean of the Ft. Lauderdale chapter of The American Guild of Organists, and has served the Portland chapter AGO as Membership Coordinator. He continues to enjoy his work as consultant and advisor in designing heroic grand organs of world-class significance and preeminence. Since 1999 Mr. Miller holds the distinguished position of Product Manager at Rodgers Instruments Corporation, one of the world’s leading organ builders, in Hillsboro, Oregon.

On September 20, Divinity Lutheran Church and Arts in Action will be hosting a benefit concert and dinner for First Lutheran Church in Lorain, which sustained significant damage in a fire last year. Organist Brian Wentzel will perform a concert at 2:00pm, followed by a catered dinner in the fellowship hall.

Ticket pricing is $35 for the concert and dinner, and $10 for the concert only. Please contact Divinity Lutheran Church at (440) 845-2060 to purchase tickets. The last day to reserve dinner tickets is September 11, 2015.

Brian Wentzel, MSM, FAGO, is Director of Music at First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lorain, Ohio, where he has served since 2006. At First Lutheran Brian has developed the FIRST music concert series, and was instrumental in procuring a Historic Organ Citation from the Organ Historical Society for the church's Brombaugh organ, all while remaining focused on the core mission of leading congregational singing.

On Sunday, March 15, Arts in Action welcomes Gail Archer to Divinity. Ms. Archer is a GRAMMY-nominated, international concert organist, recording artist, choral conductor and lecturer. In the spring of 2010, she celebrated the 325th anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach with six concerts around New York City, concluding with the Art of Fugue at Central Synagogue. Lucid Culture proclaimed, "Like the composers she chooses, Archer's playing spans the range of human emotions—with Bach, there’s always plenty to communicate, but this time out it was mostly an irresistibly celebratory vibe." In 2009, her spring series, Mendelssohn in the Romantic Century was inspired by Mendelssohn's extraordinary versatility as composer, conductor, performer and scholar and included the organ music of his sister, Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann. The series was recorded live and is available online at Meyer-Media. Ms. Archer was the first American woman to play the complete works of Olivier Messiaen for the centennial of the composer's birth in 2008. The New York Times declared, "Ms. Archer's well-paced interpretation had a compelling authority. She played with a bracing physicality in the work's more driven passages and endowed humbler ruminations with a sense of vulnerability and awe." Time-Out New York recognized the Messiaen cycle as "Best of 2008" in Classical music and opera. Besides her touring she also has responsibilities at Barnard College of Columbia University, Vassar College, the Manhattan School of Music, and Central Synagogue of New York. This will be a FREE concert.